Bank of Valletta reverses duplicate payments arising from technical issue

Bank of Valletta has “fully resolved” an issue that affected stipend and salary payment processing on Wednesday morning, saying that all duplicate payments arising from the technical issue have been reversed.

“All impacted accounts have been restored to their correct balances.”

Speaking with this BusinessNow.mt, Bank of Valletta, which was acting as one of the banks processing and crediting student stipends and salary payments to its customers, said that the issue related specifically to transactions processed within its environment.

It said that the duplicate payment issue arose from a technical processing issue linked to the execution of the payment file. “Stipend payments are initiated through established payment processes, whereby payment files are submitted for processing and credited to beneficiaries’ accounts across the banking system. The matter in question relates to the processing of a specific payment file within Bank of Valletta’s systems, which was inadvertently processed more than once due to a technological issue. This resulted in duplicate credits being applied to affected accounts held with the Bank.”

The bank, in a statement, said that when the issue was identified, it acted immediately to contain the matter and implement a structured and controlled remediation process. “This ensured that corrections were completed efficiently while maintaining a high level of care for customers. At no point were customers’ legitimate stipend or salary entitlements affected.”

The Bank acknowledged that this incident may have caused inconvenience, particularly for students who rely on these payments, and thanked customers for their patience and understanding throughout.

A review remains ongoing to establish the root cause of the incident. Any necessary enhancements to systems and controls will be implemented to further strengthen processes and minimise the risk of recurrence, it said.

Additional reporting by Kevin Schembri Orland